Chinese museums and heritage sites are stepping up security checks after a full gasoline can was found inside an unspecified world cultural heritage site.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said on Thursday that security guards found a deserted white plastic vessel filled with petrol weighing 5 kg beside a bench in a world cultural heritage site, which is open to public, at about 5 p.m. on April 22.

The administration started an emergency contingency plan and called the police, it said. But the SACH did not name the site.

"The case is under the police investigation and we are not in place to give further details," an official with the SACH publicity department told Xinhua.

In wake of the event, the SACH issued a circular requiring all museums and heritage sites to identify risks and tighten security checks.

Key museums and cultural heritage sites that open to the public can install security monitoring facilities to prevent visitors bringing in combustible substances, explosives and other dangerous chemicals, according to the circular.

Libraries, art galleries and other institutions that have cultural relic collections are also urged to improve security checks.

"Those refusing and failing to close security loopholes will be punished according to the law," it said.

The SACH will also send inspectors to popular heritage sites in cities that are to host Olympic sport programs.

Beijing's cultural heritage department said all museums and heritage sites under the municipal government would be equipped with security monitoring facilities before the Olympic Games.

Leading cultural heritage sites in Beijing such as the Forbidden City have adopted security checks for visitors.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2008)